The present invention relates to a vehicle having an engine-mounted fan shroud.
For most automobiles and trucks driven by an internal combustion engine, a cooling fan is located adjacent to heat exchangers in an engine compartment and driven by the engine. This cooling fan ensures enough air flow to prevent overheating. The heat exchangers may be, for example, a radiator and a condenser for an air conditioning system, which are typically mounted, via support structure, to the body of the vehicle. One concern with the airflow pattern generated by the fan is that the air will just recirculate, thus reducing the cooling effectiveness of the fan. As a result, in some vehicles, fan shrouds are employed that encircle the fan close to the heat exchangers.
Since there may be tolerances in the position of the heat exchangers relative to the engine, and the engine and heat exchangers may move somewhat relative to each other during vehicle operation, some fan shroud assemblies have both a body-mounted shroud and an engine-mounted shroud. The body-mounted shroud mounts to and moves with the heat exchanger support structure, which is mounted to the body, and the engine-mounted shroud mounts to and moves with the engine. To ensure the shroud assembly performs its intended function, a seal is located between the engine-mounted fan shroud and the body-mounted shroud that will allow for tolerances and maintain a seal between the two even when they move somewhat relative to each other.
Prior art fan shroud assemblies that include both a body-mounted shroud and an engine-mounted fan shroud have used a sealing arrangement with a metal ring and a bellows seal attached by a worm gear clamp. Other such shroud assemblies have attached a separate seal to a shroud with rivets. Still others have molded a shroud with through-holes in it, and then placed this shroud in a second mold where a seal is molded to the shroud in such a way that the seal material will flow through the holes in the shroud to mechanically secure the seal to the shroud. But all of these require the fabricating and handling of separate components—and some also require additional assembly steps—to create an engine-mounted fan shroud assembly. Thus, all require more process and assembly time than is desirable and may require the fabrication and handling of a greater number of individual parts than is desirable.